Tag: Chinook

Sorry for not blogging the last brews. Also I’ve been pretty lazy brewing the past years.

If you read this you might notice I updated the web site theme. I think I lost some features, but those was from a time when I hacked the theme to get them in. I don’t have time or interest to do this anymore so they are gone.

I realized I have too much hops and best way to use it is making a well hopped Imperial India Pale Ale. So here we go!

I’m trying a new technique and hope I get better efficiency than before. I’m emptying the Grainfather after the mash-up to a kettle, it was about 9-10L. Then added 10 L 74°C water to the malt bed. Then pour the wort back into the boiler after mash out.

Also boiling for 120 minutes to caramel the malts more. You can see the hop bill above, basically

It’s a well hopped black ale. Some call them CDA (Cascadian Dark Ale), I’m not in or from Cascadia, I’m not partiulary influenced by those. I’m not sure if I came up with this before I heard of them, but who cares.

It’s not an Black IPA, that just sounds stupid and I don’t condone that style name. Some say IBA (India Black Ale), I might sign on to that, but I’d like to promote yet another name…

HBA (Hoppy Black Ale)
A black ale which is just as hoppy as an American IPA. It should not get too much of the roasty tones as a stout, it should be hidden under the hops, it might come out as an after taste. But the hops should rule!

When the clock shows 11:11 make a wish and toast this beer and your wishes will come true, it will work best if you just happen to look at the clock. It doesn’t work if you set the alarm clock or wait for the clock, it should be by “luck” or instinct, then it works.

The first three pictures is Soba-cha (Japanese tea made out of roasted buckwheat). I first made the tea, and then poured everything into the mash. I only use pale ale malt and 4% caramel malt, mashed in at 65C. I’m using huge amounts of Chinook and Galaxy hops, this is going to be an Imperial one around 10% ABV and 100 IBU.

It’s a waste to not use the rest of the malts, so I’m also making a low alcohol beer from the rest of the malts in a second mashing.

Special thanks to my good friend Rob from Australia that gave me these fresh Galaxy hops, I’ll try to save a bottle for you.

Damn I need to find out a better way to filter out all the hops from the kettle before putting the wort in the carboy. Roughly 20% of the wort liquid is just hops (I forgot to take pictures of how I did it this time). The 7’th picture is after whirlpool and filtering, still 10% hops soup on the bottom.

Today is really bad weather, rainy and hard winds, perfect brewing day. I’m making a well hopped Schwarzbier, single hop with only Chinook. I prepared cold mashing of the black malts yesterday. I wish I had münchener and pilsner malts but it will do with Pale Ale malts, also tiny amounts of wheat, and amber malt.I used very little hops for bittering and taste, and huge amounts for aroma as you can see in the picture.